Francesca Albanese has been the UN’s ‘special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967′ since 2022. At the end of October, she released her latest report on Israel’s “settler colonial genocide” in Gaza. And in a recent interview, she concisely summed up why Western countries fear calling out Israel’s apartheid system.
Francesca Albanese: apartheid is a crime
Interviewer Samira Mohyeddin asked Albanese why Western governments avoid using the term ‘apartheid’ when talking about Israel, despite the fact that human rights organisations, UN experts, and the International Court of Justice have clearly outlined Israel’s apartheid crimes. Albanese replied:
Because apartheid is a crime. And recognising it as a crime carries responsibilities – responsibilities to stop it, not to engage with it, to take actions including justice.
My sit down with the indefatigably exacting and erudite @FranceskAlbs.
What an honour it was to speak with her. She is holding a mirror to the world right now & many don’t like the reflection; including the Canadian government.
FULL INTERVIEW 👉 https://t.co/pe270QrVZd pic.twitter.com/UHb0OHD0xR
— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) November 10, 2024
Albanese recently mentioned apartheid when condemning the UK arrest of 79-year-old Jewish-Israeli professor Haim Bresheeth, who has consistently spoken out against Israel’s crimes. She insisted:
Persecution of individuals & organisations opposing Apartheid constitutes an act of Apartheid (Apartheid Convention, art. II(F)). Are we allowing Apartheid to spread beyond borders? Ending Apartheid is a fundamental state obligation & a moral imperative upon all of us.
Colonial Erasure – ‘taking the land without the people’
Earlier in the interview with Mohyeddin, Albanese explained that, since her first report on Gaza in March:
The genocide has intensified. And in Gaza, I’ve analysed patterns, massacres, attacks on civilians that have become more and more obvious. As the resistance in Gaza gets decimated, you could see that there are only civilians between the Israeli army and the Israeli army’s objective, which is to take the land without the people.
This is why I call it Colonial Erasure. And this is not something that started recently.
This is something that has been building up, building up. But then, as of October 8th, it escalated into an unprecedented and determined destruction of the Palestinian people, which started in Gaza but it’s metastisizing to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Because of her firm condemnation of Israeli crimes in occupied Palestine, Albanese has long been the target of a vile smear campaign. Dozens of Jewish organisations have rejected attempts to smear her as antisemitic.
Albanese is currently speaking at public events in the UK.
Featured image via the Canary – screengrab
